2015 Geneva motorshow, key highlights

This year, the Geneva motorshow started full speed during the Press day, one day before the official opening. Some key announcements like the car of the year are religiously expected by hundreds of specialized journalists. Here is our highlights of the motorshow or at least the ones that hooked us in more.

First things first, the car of the year

French and Japanese constructors have a long heritage in the prestigious prize of the car of the year. But 2015 will be a different tone, a German one. in deed Volkswagen and its new Passat GTE got the first place in the competition. The 8th generation of Passat is hitting the market already and now Volkswagen proposes a step into the future of Passat.

This future is presented via an hybrid version. The hybrid, in this case, stands for the combination of a turbocharged direct injection petrol engine (TSI) with an electric motor, which is supplied with energy from an externally (or in Charge mode) chargeable lithium-ion battery. The car gets an “E” in GTE for E-lectric. The great idea of this car is to blend the sassiness of a sportive Passat (218hp) with the best cutting edge High-tech in terms of electric drive. So the car can basically drive full electric for at least 50km during which zero pollution will be emanated from it. 1,6L/100km and only 37g CO2/km it is the world champion. For all these reasons, the new Passat was elected 2015 Car of the year.

Ferrari and Lamborghini, unvealing the beast within

There are brands that every car afficionado have high expectancies in terms of new cars. or at least, each new launch is like a party or the announcement of the century. 2 iconic brands get this special treatment: Ferrari and Lamborghini. The first one, Ferrari, is presenting the Ferrari Sergio. For a commom person, he might wonder why did the Italian company chose such a strange name for a car but for the fan of beautiful Italian car design, this Ferrari is a thrill. It celebrates the memory of Sergio Pininfarina who shaped the silhouette of amazing cars during more than 40 years. He passed away in 2012 and let a tremendous legacy of sports car design. Ferrari would not have been Ferrari without Sergio Pininfarina. A legendary name for a legendary company. When Ferrari revealed for the first time the Sergio, it was in 2013. As usual it was presented as a special project, which means that potentially there would be just one car. As we never know, sometimes Ferrari can bring surprises and this time it is official, the Sergio will be produced in series. The first 6 are already in production and should hit the ground this year with a few happy owners. Ferrari said there is a tremendous demand for the Sergio based on the symbol that it represents.

Built on a base of a Spider 458, the car gets a V8 from the Speziale edition. 4.5L for 605hp. The first car was sold to a lucky owner in Abu Dhabi. The price is hard to say because at this level of excellence and customization, it will depend on the options required. Some experts tend to associate the price range with the ones for special editions, which means that you will need to pay something around € 3 Million. The second beast to be unveiled is the new Lamborghini Aventador. With a strong tradition of SuperVeloce cars (SV), the Italian brand (owned by Volkswagen group) always tries to push the boundaries of car building. This is how they did it with the new Aventador. The basics of the supercar’s recipe remains unchanged: a 6.5-liter V-12 engine, all-wheel-drive, and a single-clutch, seven-speed automated transmission are bolted to a carbon fiber passenger shell and aluminum front and rear subframes. But Lamborghini tweaked the engine’s valve timing, intake system and exhaust, which bumped output to 740 horsepower (the car has 750 metric horsepower, hence its name) from a previous 691 horsepower. The car will literally rocket you from 0 to 100km/h in less than 2.8 seconds. You better have your Seat belt really fastened.

In conclusion, the Geneva motorshow has barely started and there are many new cars with extraordinary technologies. In terms of trends, we see that Hybrid technologies and semi-electric engines are reasonable choices for the 2015 consumer. Several concept cars have now integrated the series production catalogs. An interesting area of development is also the combination of luxury brands into a car. Audi collaborates for a while now with brands like Bang & Olufsen and other car companies like Maserati plays the card of ultra-luxury with associations with companies like Bulgari and Ermenegildo Zegna. The ultra luxury pays.

The Geneva 2015 Motorshow will take place from March 5th until March 15th. You can visit the official website to get more information here: http://www.salon-auto.ch The website gives you loads of information about the “premieres” and also there is a very interesting multimedia section with photos and videos. You can already warm up your engine!LA

Info sourced at the official press day in Geneva motorshow, NYTimes,Turbo and Wikipedia. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available

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